- UID
- 835564
- 在线时间
- 小时
- 注册时间
- 2012-12-1
- 最后登录
- 1970-1-1
- 主题
- 帖子
- 性别
- 保密
|
沙发
楼主 |
发表于 2013-12-20 22:06:51
|
只看该作者
|
Part II: Speed Article 2: The Best Way for New Leaders to Build Trust [Time 2]
When I took over as CEO of Intralinks, a company that provides secure web based electronic deal rooms, the company was hemorrhaging so much cash that its survival was at stake. The service was going down three times per week; we were in violation of the contract with our largest client; our chief administrative officer had just been demoted, and so on.
So, what I do on my first day? I spent more than four hours listening in to client support calls at the call center. I shared headsets with many of the team, moving from desk to desk to speak to the reps. To say they were surprised is an understatement: Many CEOs never visit the call center, and virtually none do it their first afternoon on the job.
I made this my priority partly because I wanted to know what customers were saying—but also to make an internal statement. I knew there had to be some radical changes to behaviors, expectations, and attitudes. There was no time to be subtle. I needed to show I was different, that things were going to be different, and I needed to establish trust as quickly as possible.
In leading various companies over the years, one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that establishing trust is the top priority. Whether you are taking over a small department, an entire division, a company, or even a Boy Scout troop, the first thing you must get is the trust of the members of that entity. When asked, most leaders will agree to this notion, but few do anything to act on it.
【271】
[Time 3]
Without trust, it is very unlikely you will learn the truth on what is really going on in that organization and in the market place. Without trust, employees won’t level with you—at best, you’ll learn either non-truths or part truths. I see this all too frequently. Sometimes employees will go out of their way to hoard and distort the truth.
The best way to start building trust to take the time and meet as many individual contributors as you can as soon as you can. In addition to meeting customers, meeting rank-and-file employees should be your top priority.
This is not a common approach. Many leaders see their role as directing and giving information, rather than gathering. There is pressure to “come up with the answer” quickly or risk looking weak. Too many new leaders believe they’re expected to know the answer without input or guidance. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Doing this correctly takes time—but less than you might think. The meetings can be on one on one or small groups. The sessions can’t be rushed. In the first few weeks I’d suggest you spend up to half your time in these meetings. Take a pad and take notes. Listen intently. A simple but effective open-ended question is: “If you were put into my role tomorrow, what would be the first three things you’d do and why?” Or: “What are the three biggest barriers to our success, and what are our three biggest opportunities we have?” Really great ideas can emerge from these meetings—along with some really mediocre ones—but it’s your job to filter and prioritize them. First, gather the information.
【278】
[Time 4]
Later on my first day at Intralinks, I began arranging meetings with individual contributors. That’s where my learning really began. Over the next few weeks I met with over 60 individual contributors. Not only did I learn a lot, but I convinced them that I cared what they thought and could be trusted with the truth.
In the middle of my first week as CEO, one of the company’s original VCs called. “So, what’s your plan?” he asked. I said I have to spend a few weeks learning. He was incredulous that I did not have a pre-baked plan. I was incredulous he thought that I should.
Over those weeks I learned how unhappy clients were with our complex bills, why service went down so often, why our pricing gave our clients headaches, that 80% of the customer calls could be eliminated with a simple fix to our service, and that clients wanted predictability of expenditures with us.
After six weeks, I had enough information to return to the management team with specific recommendations on what I thought we should do. Instead of just laying this out in an all-hands meeting, I began laying out the plan in one-on-one meetings in which I talked about how each individual’s feedback had helped guide my thinking. This created a tremendous buy in among all levels of the team.
By mid March, after only 10 weeks on the job, we rolled out the new plan. By the end of the year we’d signed 150 new long-term contracts (up from zero), revenue was up by almost 600%, our burn rate was cut by 75%, and we’d positioned ourselves to raise a $50 million round of financing a few months later in the heart of the dot.com winter.
None of this could have happened without building the trust of the team. New leaders must remember that many of the best insights on how to fix a company lie with employees further down the org chart. Creating a trusting, honest dialogue with these key personnel should be every new leader’s top priority.
【346】
Source: hbr
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/the-best-way-for-new-leaders-to-build-trust/
Article 3: Putin critic Khodorkovsky free after pardon [Time 5]
(Reuters) - Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man, left prison on Friday after a pardon from President Vladimir Putin ended a decade in jail that many saw as the fallen oil tycoon's punishment for daring to challenge the Kremlin.
His lawyer and a prison official said Khodorkovsky was free, a day after Putin unexpectedly announced he would release one of his most powerful critics. A government source said the move could deflect criticism over Putin's human rights record as Russia prepares to host the Winter Olympics in February.
"He has left the camp. That's all I can say," lawyer Vadim Klyuvgant told Reuters by telephone. A prison official, also reached by telephone, confirmed that. Journalists outside the prison deep in the sub-Arctic forest did not see Khodorkovsky.
Putin surprised Russians and cheered the business community by announcing he would free the 50-year-old businessman because his mother was ill. Investors said it could ease entrepreneurs' fears of the Kremlin exploiting the courts for political ends.
In a presidential decree signed on Friday, Putin said he was "guided by the principles of humanity".
Putin had said after a four-hour, end-of-year news conference on Thursday that Khodorkovsky asked for clemency.
His lawyers said they were checking that with their client. He was scheduled for release next August but supporters had feared the sentence might be extended, as it was once before.
Reporters waiting outside Penal Colony No. 7 at Segezha, near the Finnish border, 300 km (200 miles) south of the Arctic Circle, did not see Khodorkovsky leave. He has spent the past few years working in the camp, in an area that was once a notorious part of Stalin's Gulag system of labor camps.
Khodorkovsky came to represent what critics say is the post-Soviet Kremlin's continued misuse of the judicial system, curbing the rule of law, and of its refusal to permit dissent.
The authorities deny this, saying judges are independent and that Putin has not cracked down on opponents. The president has, however, singled Khodorkovsky out for bitter personal attacks in the past and ignored many calls for his release.
【349】
[Time 6]
Thursday's surprise announcement underlined Putin's confidence that he has reasserted his authority and is in full control of Russia after seeing off street protests.
He said two members of the Pussy Riot protest group will also be freed, under an amnesty passed by parliament this week.
Khodorkovsky has been in jail since his arrest in October 2003 in what supporters say was part of a Kremlin campaign to punish him for political challenges to Putin, gain control of his oil assets and warn other tycoons to toe the line.
END OF EMPIRE
The oil baron fell out with Putin before his arrest as the president clipped the wings of wealthy "oligarchs" who had become powerful during the chaotic years of Boris Yeltsin's rule following the collapse of Soviet communism.
His company, Yukos, was broken up and sold off, mainly into state hands, following his arrest at gunpoint on an airport runway in Siberia on fraud and tax evasion charges.
Yukos' prize production asset ended up in the hands of state oil company Rosneft, which is now headed by Putin ally Igor Sechin.
Russian shares initially rose after Putin's announcement on Thursday but later settled back.
A sustained rally would require "a consistent track record of implementation of market-friendly reforms - in particular, of steps to improve the judicial system, so that decisions are more predictable and property rights better protected," a Moscow-based economist at an investment bank said.
Putin has staked a great deal of personal prestige on the Winter Games at Sochi on the Black Sea and is under fire abroad over a law banning the spread of "gay propaganda" among minors.
A government source said the pardons would deprive Western critics of a cause: "I think the decision to free Pussy Riot and Khodorkovsky was taken just before the Olympic Games so that they will not be able to wield this banner against Putin."
【316】
Source: reuster
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/20/us-russia-khodorkovsky-idUSBRE9BJ09020131220
|
|
京公网安备11010202008513号 京ICP证101109号 京ICP备12012021号
发表于 2013-12-20 22:06:50
收藏
收藏
